How players change their set-up for the challenge of Wentworth Club

The difference in proposition players face on the DP World Tour week-in week-out is again in evidence as the prestigious Wentworth Club hosts the BMW PGA Championship.

After a brief return to links golf last week in Northern Ireland at Royal County Down, players are faced with navigating the historic tree-lined heathland West Course in Surrey, England.

While there were wet and challenging windy conditions at times during last week’s Amgen Irish Open, the field for the third Rolex Series event of the season have so far been met by pleasant late summer sunshine, although that could change over the weekend.

Due to the change in challenge this week, it is little surprise that there have been changes in club selection among players and here, we have again teamed up with Sporting Insights to tell you the story.

The underlying narrative is the decision of players to swap out the longer irons and utility irons - that for many were in use in County Down - for fairway woods, and the rise in number of wedges in bags.

While the best in the game last week will have wanted the extra run that generally comes from playing with longer irons, this week the thinking will be to gain as much carry as possible.

The higher lofted fairway woods and hybrids offer just that, and with the continuing progress in technology in recent years, the clubs are also more forgiving.

First-round leader Matthew Baldwin is a prominent case in point, taking out his Ping I Crossover 2 utility iron and his 4 iron and replacing them for two Ping G430 hybrids (19 & 22 degrees).

World Number 22 Aaron Rai, who finished tied second at Wentworth last year and is off to a strong start this week, is another prominent case in point. After having a mini driver, along with a three and four iron in Northern Ireland, he has replaced them with a three and five wood along with a hybrid.

PGA TOUR player Mark Hubbard, who is making his BMW PGA Championship debut this week, is carrying no fewer than three fairway woods – a three wood, seven wood and a nine wood.

There is not a single player this week carrying a two iron, with Rory McIlroy – the top-ranked player in the field – among those to take it out, and instead bringing into play a TaylorMade Qi10 five wood, with 18 degrees of loft. By comparison, last year there were two, and looking further back there were 12 in 2018.

Despite all this, there has still been a drop in the number of fairway woods and hybrids, even considering the drop in field size this year from 138 to 126.

Otherwise, in a trend that has built over the last decade or so, the average number of wedges being used a player at the BMW PGA Championship has grown from 3.26 to 3.82.

With four par fives – including back-to-back over the closing two holes – on the West Course, changes to players’ ball-striking set-up extends beyond irons and woods in the quest for greens in regulation.

Elsewhere, defending champion Ryan Fox has brought in a Scotty Cameron Super Squareback 2 putter for the first time in his career.

And yet, in an anomaly compared with the majority in the field, Shane Lowry has again opted keep his bag the same from Northern Ireland. Saying that, though, the 2022 champion’s bag does reflect the trend among most players to lose a fairway wood and instead have an extra wedge this week.